Letters

Secret life of the private eye

It is a distraction to focus on the spying activities of the News of the World and the testimony of Andy Coulson while he worked at the News of the World (Andy Coulson tells MPs 'things went badly wrong' at News of the World, 22 July). A wider investigation of the activities of private investigators may well show that these sorts of services are offered by a plethora of companies, usually owned by ex-special branch or retired secret services personnel who believe themselves to be above the law. These companies are not properly policed or regulated.

An ex-special branch officer may feel his contacts within his local police force will make his activities subject to the most benign interpretation. He may employ moonlighting serving officers who allow him access to current intelligence. He will then also be assiduous in recruiting ex-SIS, MI5, GCHQ, SAS or SBS personnel whose contacts extend well beyond local boundaries to ensure utter immunity from the rule of law. The growing tendency for the security services to turn to these sorts of privatised companies, to ensure absolute deniability, is also worrying.

If one considers the profitable activities of companies like QinetiQ, Blackwater, Sandline International and myriad similar companies, their dominance in providing these sorts of less well advertised services in trouble hotspots all over the world and at home, one cannot but surmise that industrial and personal spying on largely innocent people has been turned into a very lucrative industry.

It's time that we turned the spotlight on all the amoral private investigators who operate with impunity outside the rule of law.